Reader’s questions 1) Is a visa required for Spanish citizens or is it enough with the passport? 2) What is the best way to travel from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik? Do you have bus schedules/timetables?

Visa for Spaniards

According to World Travel Guide, visa is not required for people from EU countries. In this case, Spanish travelers don’t need Visa to travel to Bosnia. However, thing might change so please double check with other sources before your trip.

Best way from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik

Bus is the best transportation mean from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik in term of money and time factors. Since I never travel directly from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik; I went to Split first, I emailed my former roommate in Bosnia and got the following information. (Thanks T.)

Frequency: Buses run 3 times a day during the summer from Jun. 15 to Sep. 3, 2007. Probably there are few buses in the winter.
Duration: slight more than 6 hours.
Cost: 42 KM ~ 21 EUR for oneway and 62 KM ~ 31 EUR for roundtrip.

Schedule

BUS LINES FROM SARAJEVO TO DUBROVNIK
-7:15 (every day): arrive in Dubrovnik at 13:40
-14:30 (on Friday and Saturday from Jun 30 to Sep 3): arrive in Dubrovnik at 21:00
-22:30 (every day from Jun 15 to Sep 3): arrive in Dubrovnik about 05:10

BUS LINES FROM DUBROVNIK TO SARAJEVO
-8:00 (every day): arrive in Sarajevo about 14:45
-13:00 (Sat and Sun from Jun 30 to Sep 3): arrive at 19:15
-22:30 (every day from Jun 15 to Sep 3): arrive at 5:00

For more information, please visit Centrotrans travel agency. For now there is no English version, so you have to try to understand the information in Bosnian.

On the homepage, you’ll see two drop-down lists. The left one is departure (Polazište) and the right one is arrival (Odredište). Pull down the lists and select Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. Or you can just scroll down and find the part Sarajevo-Dubrovnik and vice versa.

Now if you really want to read English, visit Free Online Translation from Croatian (Bosnia) to English. Copy the url of Centrotrans website: http://www.centrolines.ba/loc/ruter.wbsp into the URL text box. You should then see a semi-decent page in English mixed with Croatian.

Other useful site: Dubrovnik Online - Transportation by Coach

Important words to remember

• Daily: Svaki dan
• Departure: Polazište
• Arrival/Destination: Odredište
• Ticket: KARTA
• Oneway: JEDAN SMJER or KARTA U JEDNOM SMJERU
• Roundtrip: POVRATNA KARTA
• How long does it takes from X to Y? : Koliko traje voznja od X do Y?
• How much does it cost? Koliko to kosta? or Kolika je cijena?
• How much does oneway ticket cost? KOLIKO KOSTA KARTA U JEDNOM SMJERU?

It’s very difficult to find sufficient information about transportation in Bosnia as the country is still catching up with Internet technology. Once you arrive to Sarajevo, make a trip to the main bus station (information definitely provided in your travel guide). There are updated timetables for both domestic and international buses. Please take into consideration that the people at the ticket counters speak English very little or not at all; however they are helpful.
I used pen and paper to communicate when asking for information and buying ticket.

Dubrovnik is very cool. I was surprisingly impressed by how pretty it was. I almost decided not to visit this city. What a pity it might have been.